The EDB Blog

Find the Right Version of BART and Pgpool II

May 29, 2018

We encounter some confusion around which versions of EDB Postgres Backup and Recovery Tool (BART) are supported with which version of our database server, EDB Postgres Advanced Server (EPAS). This calls for publishing a BART support matrix to describe the BART/Database server version support as well as the support period for every release.

BART

1.0

1.1

2.0

2.1

2.2

EPAS 9.1

YES

YES

NO

NO

NO

EPAS 9.2

YES

YES

NO

NO

NO

EPAS 9.3

YES

YES

NO

NO

NO

EPAS 9.4

YES

YES

NO

NO

NO

EPAS 9.5

NO

NO

YES

YES

YES

EPAS 9.6

NO

NO

YES

YES

YES

EPAS 10

NO

NO

NO

YES

YES

BART 2.0 was a groundbreaking release as it provided support for a block-level, incremental backup feature, which clearly differentiates BART from other backup tools for Postgres. The block-level incremental backup support was based on WAL level scanning identifying the changed blocks. This was only possible with database servers 9.5 and above hence we made a clean break to say that BART 2.0 and beyond would support database servers 9.5 and beyond and BART 1.x releases would support database servers prior to 9.5. This support policy is shown in the above table. Please note that EPAS 10 support was only added in BART 2.1 and onwards.

The support timeline for all BART releases is available on the EDB website. It shows the support period for all the BART releases that are in GA status.

Another question that comes up very often is which version of Pgpool II is supported with which database server. For a bit of background, Pgpool II is a middleware product that sits between the client and the database server in both PostgreSQL and EDB Postgres Advanced Server architectures and provides functionality like connection pooling, load balancing, high availability, etc. While Pgpool II is a community product, EnterpriseDB (EDB) ships its own version of Pgpool II because of the proprietary enhancements added to the community Pgpool. The changes are done to support the EDB protocol extensions like stored procedure support, redwood style sequences, etc.

The table below shows the version of the EDB Pgpool II along with the corresponding EDB Postgres Advanced Server (EPAS) version it is shipped with. This means that the EPAS server and Pgpool II is supported and tested in the variation given below. The latest version of community pgpool II is 3.7, EDB pgpool II 3.7 is not released yet.

EPAS Version

Pgpool II Version

10

3.6.9

9.6

3.5.13, 3.6.19

9.5

3.4.16

9.4

3.3.20, 3.4.16

9.3

3.3.20

Ahsan Hadi is Senior Director, Product Development, EnterpriseDB.

This blog is a combination of two posts that originally appeared on the user forum PostgresRocks.com.